Offering a comedy cure for Roma's fascist fans

Copies of Life Is Beautiful will be distributed by newspaper Il Romanista

A Roma-supporting newspaper intends taking the unusual measure of giving fans copies of the Italian comedy drama Life Is Beautiful, in its bid to combat the fascist views of some of the club's followers.

Il Romanista took the decision after sections of the Roma crowd displayed neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic banners during a Serie A match against Livorno at the Stadio Olimpico last month. The league's disciplinary committee punished the club by ordering them to play their next home match - against Cagliari - at a neutral venue behind closed doors.

But Il Romanista's editor, Riccardo Luna, felt that it was the fans' attitudes that needed changing, not just the venue. "At least this way one might grasp what happened in the death camps," said Luna of Roberto Benigni's Oscar-winning film, which tells the story of a Jewish family deported to an Italian concentration during the second world war. "At the stadium that day there was indifference, but straight afterwards our newspaper was inundated by emails and letters from angry fans, who asked me how we could show our disapproval."

The Roma fans' banners were only the latest in a series of racist and political incidents to tarnish the image of Italy's top flight. Last season Roma had to play their last two Champions League group stage matches behind closed doors after the Swedish referee Anders Frisk was struck by a coin thrown from the stands at the end of the first half of their opening home game against Dynamo Kiev.

And this season, Lazio striker Paolo Di Canio has twice been fined and suspended for fascist salutes at the end of games against Livorno and Juventus. Last November Messina's Ivory Coast midfielder Mark Zoro was reduced to tears and threatened to walk off the pitch after he was racially abused by supporters of Internazionale.